Uranium Exploration in the UP
Since opening its McArthur River uranium mine, in 1999, Cameco Corporation has been the world’s largest producer of uranium for use in power plants and weapons systems. While Canada supplies roughly 30% of the world’s uranium, McArthur provides 20% of the world’s supply and is the largest high-grade, underground uranium mine in the world.[1]
An April, 2003 cave-in and flood of radioactive water at McArthur stopped production for three months. Cameco admitted that consultant’s reports had warned of caving and flooding as the mine did not possess adequate water pumping and treatment capacity or proper contingency plans in the event of an accident. Cameco also conceded that their engineering used non-standard methodology and could not relate to standard industry practice.[2]
A Canadian Broadcasting Channel (CBC) report revealed that Cameco was expecting a flood months prior to the incident. Following the accident, the company increased the allowable amount of radiation its workers could be exposed to. The report revealed that McArthur miners, working without ventilation equipment were exposed to high levels of radon during the containment and rebuilding of the mine because contaminated water was accidentally pumped into the clean water line.[3]
Cameco’s other Saskatchewan-based operations are at Rabbit Lake and Key Lake. Now mined-out, Key Lake is currently the world’s largest uranium milling facility, processing 18 million pounds of milled uranium oxide (U3O8) yearly that comes from the company’s McArthur River mine. While nearly exhausted of its uranium, Rabbit Lake will process uranium mined from the Cigar Lake Mine once that facility is operating.
Cigar Lake suffered its own setback, in October 2003, when that mine flooded. Cigar Lake is the world’s largest undeveloped underground uranium mine and was expected to begin supplying 1/6 of the world’s uranium by 2008. Production has been delayed at least a year.[4]
January 2007 uranium prices were ten times more than only six years ago, making even marginal deposits valuable. Uranium mining in Saskatchewan has proven particularly valuable as ore deposits can contain as much as 24% uranium. This, combined with a relative lack of local opposition and the isolation of the mines, allows Cameco to post massive profits even with a temporary closure of its operations.
Cameco has found there are other regions where the company can avoid using industry best practice. The company operates its Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgystan. The company dumps its cyanide-laced tailings on top of a glacier, untreated and unlined. In 1998 Cameco was responsible for a cyanide spill into the Kumtor River that killed at least two citizens and devastated the area’s Lake Issyk-Kul tourist industry.[5]
In 2003, a Cameco and Bitterroot Resources Ltd. option/joint venture agreement (JVA) began exploring 780 square miles of the Upper Peninsula for a high-grade uranium deposit, citing Kennecott Minerals’ success in locating its nickel/copper/PGE deposit (Eagle Project) as the impetus behind its accelerated exploration. Bitterroot notes that it has “completed 1,322 metres of core drilling in seven holes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.”[6] Bitterroot had previously been involved in a JVA with Kennecott Minerals in exploring for nickel, copper, platinum and palladium in the Upper Peninsula.[7]
On November 24, 2005, an RSB Logistics semi-truck wrecked on M-117, in Mackinaw County, Michigan. The truck was transporting low-level radioactive calcined mining materials for Cameco from Blind River, Ontario to Blanding, Utah.[8] The driver drove into the ditch while choking on a piece of beef jerky.[9] M-117 was closed to traffic between US-2 and M-28. A Cameco hazardous materials team unloaded the cargo. The Michigan State Police noted that the incident caused “no known health threat.”[10]
1 CBC News, “Fuel For Thought: Canada’s Uranium Boom,” January 22, 2007
3 Ibid
4 Cameco Corp., “Cameco Updates Progress on Cigar Lake Remediation,” Press Release, March 1, 2007
5 Feiler, Jozsef, “Kumtor, the Poisoned Gold,” in Heavy Footprint: The World Bank Group and the Environment in Europe and Central Asia, edited by Feiler, J. & Malbasic, J., CCE Bankwatch Network, Budapest, 2000 ; See also The Economist Intelligence Unit, Kyrgyzstan Country Profile 2000 and London & Mining and CANMET Mineral Science Laboratories, “The International Scientific Commission’s Assessment of the Impact of the Cyanide Spill at Barskoun, Kyrgyz Republic,” 1998
6 Bitterrot Resources Ltd., “Drilling Progress on Several Fronts,” Press Release, February 1, 2007
9 Pepin, John, "Accident Closes M-117," Mining Journal, November 26, 2005
10 Michigan State Police, “Mackinaw Co., Garfield Tws. Hazardous Materials Hauler Vehicle Accident,” Press Release, November 25, 2005
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